Russian warplanes have increased the number of combat sorties in Syria because of receiving more confirmed reconnaissance data about the Islamic State infrastructure facilities

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The Russian air force grouping has attacked 118 facilities of the Islamic State terrorist organization in Syria over the past 24 hours, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.

"Aircraft of the Russian air force grouping in the Syrian Arab Republic have made 71 sorties over the past twenty-four hours against 118 terrorist facilities in the Idlib, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia provinces," he said.

According to Konashenkov, Russia’s Su-24M bombers have destroyed a militant command post with a communication hub and a large ammunition depot discovered by unmanned aerial vehicles near the village of Salma in Latakia province.

A command post of Jaish al-Islam terrorist organization, which was located on the outskirts of the settlement of Misrabah near the Syrian capital of Damascus, as well as a command post of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization in the area of the settlement of Tel-Bisa in the Homs province were also destroyed.

The Russian air group in Syria has destroyed a large disguised terrorist supply post with weapons and ammunition, Defense Ministry’s spokesman informed.

"Su-25 jets destroyed a large disguised terrorist supply post with weapons, ammunition and materiel in Idlib province," Konashenkov said. "A bomb hit a truck loaded with ammunition and destroyed both the truck and the nearby depot."

In Konashenkov's words, the strikes were also delivered at the exposed infrastructure of militants, which was earlier mothballed or thoroughly masked.

"These are first of all bases, transit centers and strongholds of terrorists as well as command posts," he said.

According to Konashenkov, all Russian aircraft at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria are technically sound, there are enough ammunition and fuel reserves.

Russian warplanes have increased the number of combat sorties in Syria because of receiving more confirmed reconnaissance data about the Islamic State infrastructure facilities, Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson went on to say.

"As you can see, the number of combat sorties has increased due to the fact that we have started to receive more accurate reconnaissance information, which is confirmed through various channels, about the location of terrorist infrastructure targets," Konashenkov said.

"This fact is a convictive answer to various anonymous sources in certain foreign media who take the liberty of making unfounded claims on allegedly insufficient technical soundness of our aircraft," he noted.

"I want to underscore once again: Russian aircraft at the Khmeimim airbase are all-weather and all support services for our air group work consistently, reliably and effectively," Konashenkov stressed.

"Analyzing the methods of work of our foreign colleagues on that issue and without waiting for their next [information] injection, we report: we have the required volumes of reserves of materiel, petroleum, oil and lubricants, ammunition and everything required for effective hostilities," the general said.